


territory

by 0222fm



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst, Demonic Possession, F/F, Haunting, Horror, Other, Psychological Horror, no beta again
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-06-26 09:11:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19765087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0222fm/pseuds/0222fm
Summary: it's the summer of 1979. nightmares no longer wait for sleep.





	1. the burden

**Author's Note:**

> death, demons, and other omens.  
> don't read in the dark, if you're easily afraid (relevant starting chapter three).  
> appropriate warnings will be listed at the beginning of each chapter.

it was the summer of 1979, late june. 

about nine kilometers from the west coast was an old woman; she often stared vacantly out into the woods with hands that clutched a coverless book. 

"it comes in threes," she'd say, the tips of her calloused fingers mindlessly running over the stained and crinkled edges of paper. "it comes in threes, it always comes in threes," no one in the small village of yeonhwa listened, chalking up her ramblings to the grim reaper taking one piece of her mind at a time. so she sits, day after day, baring her warning to an earless word: it comes in threes. 

it's said that the elderly slowly lose their minds while up on the mountain road. there’s something in the woods, people say, that soak everything in. it’s in the dirt, the trees, every individual leaf, in the burial grounds that border the woods, in the lightning bugs, the dragon flies: it’s everything. it’s impossible to escape, not that one would leave the village anyway. people spend their eternity here.

yeonhwa was, and still is, comprised of a thin road that snakes between thick forests and mountains. all sides, besides north, are inhabitable; it’s all uphill until viewless peaks emerge: seonun mountain to the east, gaeippal mountain to the south, and nam mountain to the west. a buddhist temple lives less than a kilometer from the southern most edge of the road and between gaeippal and seonun mountain. that salvation is a fifteen minute hike through brush and weeds and bugs, but worth it -- it’s tranquil, a sanctuary. 

grandma jung doesn’t look towards it. she gazes at the trees covering nam mountain. no one gives her much attention, if at all; but, past the old woman's vacant gaze -- if one tries to understand the hollow look radiating from inside -- it’s as if her eyes are running through the forest and seeing every twig and spider web, as if she’s covered every millimeter of ground and can recall every rock and every patch of clover. it’s almost as if she is the forest herself.

"grandma," a girl in her late teens came out from the sliding screen door, the wood of the deck creeking beneath her bare feet. “grandma, dinner’s ready,” she reached for the elderly woman’s arm, helping her stand. the sun had just gone behind the trees, shards of light peeking through the few clear spaces where the leaves were thin. soon, the sun would set.

metal chopsticks chirped against the plastic, metal, and porcelain dishes as the five members of the jung family sat around the dining table, floor cushions made of woven wood for summer. “haseul’s mother said that hyejoo’s father still has hope,” a middle-aged woman laughed and was busy placing braised mushrooms and meat into her son’s bowl of rice. “pitiful, it’s almost been three years.”

jinsol, the youngest child and only daughter, was filling her own bowl, “she could still be out there.” 

“her body, maybe, but not her,” jinsol’s father chimed in. this conversation happened every-so-often and always ended the same: the entirety of yeonhwa assumed son hyejoo to be dead, and anyone who couldn’t see the ‘truth’ was deemed hopeless, hyejoo’s friends and father included.

jinsol kept her eyes down while her mother changed the topic, “eat up -- this is the last of this stew for awhile. the new batch of soybean paste still isn’t ready yet and i’m not asking haseul’s mom for some again.” 

dinner ended with jinsol’s mother complaining about other mothers that lived near them and all the gossip that she'd learned throughout the day while pulling weeds in the shared garden. it's all things jinsol had heard from her friends earlier, and it's all things she doesn't care to hear again. 

it was after dinner and jinsol was careful while creeping out the back, bare feet running in the humid grass until she was far enough away to safely put on her sandals. the night had crept in along with the crickets; they chirped in harmony with the cicadas, a symphony among the clanking of dishes from the houses cleaning up after dinner nearby. the village’s single road made it awfully secluded from the rest of the world, but it was tight-nit. on the northern most edge of the road was the park’s residence, a little further south was where the im's lived, in the center of the road -- between the park’s and kim’s -- was what was dubbed ‘the cluster’: a gathering of homes where the majority of yeonhwa’s population survived. it's where the jo's, jung's, jeon's, son's, wang's, choi's, and another family of kim's resided. the only home that wasn't close by, one that was sheltered away within the woods, was where the ha's lived.

a few days ago, most of the neighborhood girls agreed on this meeting; after dinner, they’d leave their hot homes in exchange for a few minutes near the edge of the forest. the piece of land just behind the kim's farm had been their meeting place for the past few years, particularly when they were meeting for mourning. it has almost been three years since one of their own went missing.

"he still hasn’t given up," hyunjin -- one of two daughters from the kim family -- said. "my mom wouldn't stop talking about it at dinner." she was standing with her arms crossed, long hair sticking to her bare skin and to the side of her stoic face. air swollen with moisture tended to sink between the mountain spaces, yeonhwa either filled with fog or humidity. tonight, it had both.

"does anyone else think it's annoying when they won't shut up about it?" it was heejin, she swatted a mosquito away that was buzzing close to her face. 

there was a communal 'yeah', as if that was the topic of conversation at all of their families' dinners. 

after, they stood in silence: heejin, hyunjin, yerim, haseul, jiwoo, jungeun, and jinsol. yerim broke it with the sound of her sneakers against the ground as she placed a plucked flower at the edge of the forest, right where the weeds grew tall. she's been doing it almost every month since it happened.

normally, they'd say something. someone would begin fantasizing out loud about how maybe if they could go back in time and stop hyejoo from entering the woods that day or how if they all just listened when she suggested the idea during lunch, then maybe she'd still be here. the tangibility of their hope to find her was unwillingly fading, turning into what it was all along: just hope. 

the hair on the back of haseul's neck kept rising the more she looked into the darkness between the trees. what has been lurking in there has been a mystery to her for close to three years; she refused to ever go back in, but the questions that were left unanswered were greater than any fear. it wasn't terror that was absorbing into her skin, it was curiosity. "we should go back there, to the spot," haseul's words prompted a chorus:

"go back?" 

"you know damn well why that's a shitty thing to say."

"are you fucking crazy? no one ever goes back to the spot." 

haseul stayed still, entranced in the idea of it all, "it's how we helped jinsol."

the rest stayed silent, knowing the truth would be hard to argue against. 

"we don't know that for sure," jungeun spoke up, she had always been a non-believer. "the doctors said it was the medicine they gave her. it's just a coincidence," -- she turned to jinsol -- "right?" 

"yeah," uneasy, jinsol replied. having the past brought up never sat well with her. 

"oh, shut up," haseul brought her eyes away from the trees, nose scrunched up in annoyance and in the hope it would pinch away the sweat forming around her brows. "they were coming up with some lame explanation. we all know it was because we moved the body." 

no one goes there anymore, an unspoken rule that had formed six years ago. a rule that was to never be broken. 

yerim shifted her weight before deciding to leave, not saying anything as she walked away. her footsteps back to the cluster switched from blades of grass being crunched to the sound of gravel being kicked. hyunjin and jiwoo followed soon after, walking back to their home nearby.

"it's good to keep your thoughts to yourself, sometimes," jungeun, too, left, and heejin called out a 'let's go together!' after hesitating a bit. both lived near each other in the cluster.

haseul lingered, unable to move. she didn't care if the others didn't agree -- she knew that they knew she was right. that saturday, from back then, will forever be ingrained in all of their minds; their smaller shoe prints were still mushed into the earth. they won't ever go away. all of the 'what if's' could be abolished if the rest of the girls accepted the truth, haseul knew it. 

it started with a game that warped the likes of hide-and-seek with tag: something they've played on end almost every day during every summer. their knees would be scraped from jagged twigs or rough bark, mosquito bites from hiding near small puddles. in the distance -- when someone was caught -- a yell or a loud, complaining voice would be heard and everyone else would know to leave the area. 

one day, haseul -- the one known for her loud complaints -- had screamed.

a few of the girls were running through the forest together just after an afternoon rain. the mountain was still dusted with fog and their mothers didn't know where they were headed, just that they were going out. it was the summer of 1973, and they were building a paradise: their fort. while playing a game of hide-and-tag, some decided to multitask. the girls spent time collecting logs and sticks between hiding, and stealing pieces of fabric or wood from home to make this fort impeccable. haseul, heejin, jinsol, and hyunjin had to drop everything and run away as yeojin, yerim, and jiwoo were bolting through the brush to catch them. it was that day when haseul's sneakers sunk a little too deep into the mud, tugging out a pale hand from the dark earth as she tried to get herself unstuck. 

haseul fell, pulling herself away from the hand and leaving her shoe behind. her sock was already ruined by the time her back hit the trunk of a tree. all the girls saw it, jinsol was the only one brave enough to pull on it. she yanked the hand to show an arm, then yanked the arm to show a body. being around eleven left them clueless and scared, running away without covering the perfectly unmarked flesh back up with dirt. they left it exposed. they didn't tell their parents, either.

the next day jinsol got sick. a week later, she was in the hospital. a week after that, the doctors didn't think she would make it. 

the doctors had pondered over what was the cause, all tests coming back inconclusive. there was nothing in her blood, nothing in her bones, no prior rashes, or prior illnesses. she was sick and that's all they could give. 

jinsol's parents blamed the small, underfunded hospital for not doing their jobs properly. jinsol's grandmother said time was all they needed.

the mountain road girls would all visit jinsol practically every day, restless on what to do or if they could even do anything at all. 

'was there something she touched in the woods?' a common question that was asked once the doctors found out jinsol became ill after playing in the woods. an odd variety of a poisonous plant was lurking below the weeds had to be the answer (it was all that was left). they started a new medicine. jinsol's health was still declining. no one made any mention of the body. 

after the girls were told to prepare for the worst, they were split in opinion. 

some suggested they should keep jinsol comfortable -- it was all they were told they could do. 

others suggested to rebury the body.

some brought jinsol her stuffed dolls and favorite snacks from the shop near the hospital.

others returned to the forest.

it happened almost over night. jinsol's recovery was unpredictable: her pale skin grew life again, the decaying spots sprinkled around her flesh were healing, her lips turning from blue to pink, and in all of her -- from blood to bone -- there was still no reason she was sick. it took only a few days for her to make a complete recovery and come back home. although the girls fought on if the body was the reason, they all agreed to never go back there. jinsol included.

three years after, hyejoo went missing. 

her mother had vanished overnight years before and something wasn't sitting right inside her mind, the faceless body in the dirt that she'd only heard about through whispers somehow begging to be excavated: it could be her mother, she thought. so she told yeojin and chaewon that she was going to unbury the body, 'just to check'.

they refused to come with. 

no one saw her again.

after the disappearance of son hyejoo, the local police along with thirty volunteers began searching the woods. it didn’t take long for them to find a body, just not hyejoo’s. 

haseul felt something against her arm and jumped.

"you alright?" it was jinsol, the crickets were louder near the woods, and so were the cicadas. "everyone left. there are too many mosquitoes out and it's too dark, so i'm leaving." clouds had poured in, the moon hidden. 

"yeah, i'm coming," she slapped a bug on her arm, it's corpse stuck to her skin. jinsol had already turned around and began walking back towards the cluster, where both her and haseul lived. 

haseul could hear the large steps jinsol was taking over the spots in the grass where the weeds grew a little higher. she followed close behind, eyes down to watch where her feet were going. walking through a patch of itchy grass would make her legs form a rash and she wouldn't be able to explain it to her mother in the morning.

"you know," jinsol paused and turned, looking past haseul and into the woods. the edge of the trees was beautiful, begging to be entered. "i think you're right." 

the other girl stayed silent, not recognizing the look in jinsol's eyes. 

"i think we could save hyejoo. i think she's still in there," she switched her gaze to haseul. "but that body is gone. i don't know what we'd do." 

"i have an idea," she's had it for awhile, but couldn't bring it up. doubt, indecision, and the thought of rejection often orbited her. "i just need a little more time to think about it," and to think about if it was something worth putting into action.

jinsol nodded, a look of understanding, "i wanna help, tell me when you're ready." 

she turned back around they continued their way back home, each eventually sneaking into the back doors of their homes in hopes of not getting caught. 

tonight they commemorated hyejoo's disappearance with the assumption that she was still alive, and tomorrow they'd go back to pretending as if she was dead. they all hated the contrast.


	2. the deceived

haseul had woken up in a pile on the floor, hair soaking up sweat as it clung to her face and to the back of her neck. her parents refused to buy an air conditioner, claiming it would be too expensive, and she wasn't allowed to sleep with the fan on, just on the odd case it killed her during the night. so she showered once before she went to bed and once after her eyes opened. 

she was letting her hair dry in the sun, her feet dangling off the small porch out the back as she watched the wind blow tops of green onions. there was a small shared garden between her house and others that proved to be a life source, specifically those who lived in the cluster. it was mostly used by the jung's, jo's, son's, and choi's -- simply because of proximity -- but if a family put in the effort, they could reap the benefits. 

"did you think about it?" it was jinsol; she pulled haseul out of her dreaming, bringing her back to the peaceful heat. jinsol had a towel on top of her head and strands of soaked brown hair turned black laid against her back. she must have washed her hair inside, haseul thought. she didn't notice jinsol going to the washroom earlier and she had been sitting here for awhile now. 

the jung's and jo's lived in homes so close to one another, they may as well have been connected, and in some parts, they were. decks that porturded from the front of their homes wrapped around and morphed into one that outlooked the garden. between their homes was a washroom both families shared. there was very little unknown between them, from shower schedules to how much jinsol's father snored at night. haseul and jinsol had gotten past 'good mornings' a long time ago. 

the towel that hung around haseul's shoulders, the one that was supposed to slurp up the drops of water falling from her hair, was doing a horrible job at keeping her shirt dry. "i did, but i still don't know," she bunched up the towel and tossed it inside through the sliding door. last night, haseul knew she started something that she wouldn't be able to stop. she mentioned wanting to go back into the woods, wanting to save hyejoo (if there was anything left to be saved), and no one would forget that. yet even if everyone else avoided her from here on out, at least jinsol was there. she knew jinsol would always be there. 

"well," jinsol cupped her hand over her eyes, hiding from the eastern sun. "it's already been three years, doesn't hurt to wait a little lon--" 

"sowon--" a rickety voice from the front porch called out, anxious. "sowon!" 

"coming!" jinsol called back, eyes darting to haseul. 

jinsol's grandmother wasn't always like this. although the two were still young -- both girls in their eighteenth year -- they could remember when grandma jung was still herself. over the past six years, they had watched her deteriorate into the shell she was today. at first it was the prolonged fits of a dazed look, then it was the chanting, and then it was forgetting names, which is how jinsol became 'sowon'. she didn't even acknowledge haseul anymore. 

jinsol left to attend to her grandma, cutting through the house as a shortcut, and haseul was alone. it was becoming more frequent, the 'sowon!' instead of 'jinsol!'. it was worrying, but there was little to be done: time came and left, and it didn't matter who or what was in its path. they were all passive victims. 

haseul heard jinsol's returning footsteps and watched as the other girl sat herself down, sun now seeping into both of their eyes. there was quiet among the morning birds: the emotion of knowing when a loved one is slowly slipping away already too prevalent so early in the day. they sat like that until haseul broke the silence.

"let's do it," she nodded. "let's get hyejoo back," time was running, not out, but over them. soon it would leave them in the past and be too late. 

jinsol put her palms behind her, holding her body up, "what'd you have in mind?"

"i read about this thing called a ouija board, it's something you can talk to the dead with," she started, glancing over at jinsol briefly before turning back towards the garden. "maybe if we try to contact hyejoo and get a reply, we'll know she's really -- you know -- really gone."

"and if we don't?"

"then it doesn't work and we try something else," haseul kicked her feet, toes hitting the top of a weed that grew a little too tall. there was silence, again, and she saw jinsol chewing on the inside of her cheek in thought. 

"it sounded better in my head," haseul confessed and ran her fingers through her hair, detangling the dry from the still damp bits. "it probably won't work anyway." 

jinsol spoke up, "no, i read about something like this." she turned her body to face haseul, one leg over the edge, the other crimped for comfort. "it could actually work, but i think it's a lot more complicated than it looks, like we'd need to do a lot -- hold on," the old wood boards creaked as jinsol stood, rushing back into her home for the second time this morning. she returned with a book, cover worn and damaged, and sat down next to haseul. 

jinsol flipped through the pages carefully, but quickly, trying to find a specific chapter. there were words -- some in korean, some in a language haseul thought could be english but wasn't sure; pictures littered some pages, while text consumed others. 

haseul was entranced, "where'd you get this?" 

"the shrine, from when grandma took care of it," jinsol said without losing concentration, flipping to a set of pages and stopping. "here it is," her finger ran down the fading black ink, looking for something before turning to haseul. "i don't know what you've read, but this book is legitimate. i mean, it came from the shrine, it has to be real." 

haseul was too busy trying to read, only humming her agreement as a response. compared to what she had seen in movies and read in books, the instructions listed on these pages were detailed and explicit. for something to be so well thought through, it had to have worked before. if it worked before, it should work now. 

the two read on, haseul this time making a break for her own room to grab a pen and a pad of paper to take notes. they'd need at least five people (preferably ones who were close to hyejoo), something to draw with, a few candles, and some other supplies that they could easily gather.

"we need to do this back in the woods, probably by the fort," jinsol read over the location part in the paragraph, seeing no other way around the instruction of 'last known place of being' for the best place to try and contact hyejoo's spirit.

haseul nodded -- it was a given, "we need yeojin and chaewon, too." 

"i don't know if that'll work." 

"we need to try, they were her best friends. who else was closer?" 

hours had passed and a little less than three hundred meters up the road was where yeojin and chaewon had their afternoon snack. for them, it was a summer tradition: chaewon, yeojin, and hyejoo would munch, play a game of checkers or something similar, and see where the day would bring them. now, it was just yeojin and chaewon who kept the tradition alive. 

the two were chatting, eating fruit, and stealing berries off of chaewon's parents' raspberry bushes. the sun wasn't quite straight above them, giving just the pyeongsang just enough shade for the both of them to rest comfortably and to keep their drinks from going warm. 

"she's doing it again," chaewon tilted her head towards the western woods, popping a raspberry into her mouth. 

yeojin didn't look, "sooyoung? didn't she just do that yesterday?" 

chaewon returned her attention towards the checkerboard, "pretty sure, yeah." for the past couple of years, sooyoung had taken it upon herself to keep the temple southeast of yeonhwa from growing old. she swatted the spiderwebs, chased out the rats, swept up the dust, cleared debris, and -- which very few could even come to a remotely correct answer for -- collect weeds from within the woods. 

"so weird," yeojin moved a checker piece, then moved one of chaewon's off of the board. sooyoung and her father used to be a common topic of gossip on the mountain road, second to the son's family, yet it switched from details to passing comments. everyone knew ha sooyoung changed after her mother passed, indulging in religion for what the older people assumed to be to find peace. 

chaewon stretched her hands out in front of her then tightened her ponytail, scanning the board for a move to make -- she wasn't going to let yeojin win so easily and she had a route almost planned out when her thoughts were cut off. 

"not as weird as jinsol's grandma, though," the younger one of the two said. both chuckled. it had stopped being sad a long time ago -- the deterioration of the elderly -- and was now just an annoying reminder that they, too, might end up like that one day. 

there was some talking in the distance, yeojin heard it, but her eyes stayed unmoved from the board, "someone's coming. it's not my mom, is it?"

"no, looks like," chaewon craned her neck, trying to see the faces behind the trunks of trees. "haseul and -- ah, speak of the devil," she rested her head against her hands, elbows on her crossed legs. 

"jinsol?" 

"yeah." 

the two waited, quietly exchanging grievances, before the others arrived in front of them. it wasn't abnormal for any of the girls to talk -- at least not when they were young -- but chaewon had heard from yerim about what happened last night. she got a phone call almost immediately after the informal ceremony ended and both yeojin and herself knew the look that was in haseul's eyes. she wanted something, and whatever it was, chaewon didn't want any part of it. she didn't want yeojin to have any part in it, either.

"hey," haseul spoke once she and jinsol closed in, adjusting the bag hanging off of her shoulder and walking just outside of the shade the trees next to her had made. 

chaewon and yeojin greeted the others and moved to make a little more room on the pyeongsang, although there was enough room already. the other girls slid off their shoes before sitting down, jinsol taking a raspberry without asking and haseul putting her bag down on the ground. 

no one spoke at first, the air uncomfortable not by the humidity, but what sat between it. all eyes looked down at the checkerboard before an annoyed voice grew tired of the quiet.

"what is it?" it was chaewon.

the words hit a wall, haseul unsure of if there was hostility in the other's voice or not, "what?"

"why'd you come all the way here? what do you want?" 

although jinsol and herself had came up with a plan for how to convince yeojin and chaewon to come with them, they didn't pan for this kind of confrontation. haseul reached for the book in her bag and put it next to the checkerboard, fingers sliding it close to the others. 

"i think hyejoo's still alive," haseul began. "i can't prove it yet, but i know." 

"she's not," yeojin spoke, reaching for the book. "trust me, she's really not." she opened the cover and thumbed through the pages, not really paying attention. she let the cover fall back to a close soon after. 

"look," haseul took the book away, finding the exact page that spoke about how to talk to the dead and shoved it in front of yeojin. "i think she's alive, you think she's dead. let's see who's right. let's try to contact her." 

"you think that'd actually work?" chaewon took the book from haseul's hands, looking it over for herself. sure, the pages were old, the book was used, and it had barely legible notes written in the margins, but it was just a book. there was no reason for it to hold the truth. 

haseul leaned forward, eyes leaving yeojin to look at chaewon, "if it doesn't, it doesn't. but if it does, we'll know for sure if we should stop hoping or keep trying." 

chaewoon started to go over the book in-depth, forehead wrinkling as her eyes scanned the instructions, "do you even have everything this thing is asking for?" 

"yeah, jinsol and i mapped it out this morning," haseul motioned toward her bag. "we have everything. we just need five people close to hyejoo and to go to the fort. we could try it right now." 

a sigh left chaewon; she closed the book and passed it back to haseul with one hand, nose turned up, "i'll only do it if yeojin does it." her look was smug, knowing that she'd win this. yeojin barely left her house or took a glance out into the woods since hyejoo went missing, let alone went back inside. she had gotten nightmares because of it; she'd sometimes wake up screaming in the night -- screams that chaewon could hear from her own bedroom if the window was cracked. it wasn't all the time, but happened more often than it ever should. before, yeojin recounted the things she saw (things that weren't really there), but that was only once or twice a few years ago. she didn't talk about it again, and chaewon wasn't going to bring it up. 

trying to play it off, haseul retorted, "that's fine. we can wait or ask the oth--" 

"i'll do it," yeojin straightened her back as she spoke, chaewon turning quick to look at her. "if it makes you let this go, let's do it." 

chaewon stretched a hand out and placed it near yeojin, comforting, "are you su--" 

"yeah, let's do it." 

"okay," haseul wasn't going to wait any longer; the longer she waited, the more time yeojin would have to retract her agreement. "the book says we need five people. you, chaewon, jinsol, and me -- " she pointed as she spoke " -- we need one more." 

"i can get yerim," chaewon was quick to speak. 

haseul was already reaching for her bag, jinsol stealing another raspberry, "that works, we can go together."

"no, it's alright," chaewon, too, was beginning to clean up, eating the last few pieces of fruit and stacking the dishes. "i should bring these back home, you all can go first. meet at the fort, right?" 

"right," haseul had slipped on her shoes, bag hung over her shoulders. jinsol had followed suit and yeojin was as well. "meet you in ten?"

chaewon nodded and watched the others depart, exchanging a glance with yeojin. 

after the three had left, chaewon quickly went inside to put the dishes in the sink and ran back out, giving no explanation to her questioning mother about why she was in such a rush. haseul wasn't the only one with a plan. 

they had entered the woods; it looked both familiar and completely different. all the trees they remembered from before were still there, only some bigger and some fallen over from harsh summer storms or heavy winter snow. there were overgrown weeds in spaces they could have sworn was the path they made and there were more bugs than they remembered. eventually, they made their way to the old fort. grass and moss had slithered between the poorly constructed floor, a few branches poking through the walls, and the roof was partially caved in, leaving a pile of half-digested flora vomit on the edge of the platform.

jinsol let her arms hang freely against her sides, "it's so worn down." the fort was a sight hard to take in -- she hadn't seen the place since six years ago, and the others almost the same. it used to be a place to escape to, and now it was contorting itself back into nature.

"it's not too bad, we can use it still, i think," haseul put the bag inside the fort. nothing had broke from the weight of her bag, so she put a foot in and then the other. "we can still use it," she jumped a little, hearing only creeks and no snapping. it helped that the floor was so close to the ground. 

yeojin kept her eyes on the leaves and weeds and branches beneath her feet all the way up to the spot, but brought them up to see the work she remembered she helped create. she took a deep breath, keeping herself calm, "it's so… so--" 

"hey!" 

they all heard it through the woods and turned, eyes expecting a fluttery chaewon and an equally fluttery yerim, but were met with jungeun. 

haseul stepped out of the fort. her back began to hurt from bending over anyway. 

"you think this is really fucking fun, huh?" jungeun was moving quickly through the brush, arms swinging by her side with chaewon half-walking, half-running behind her. "making yeojin go into the woods? back here? a real great idea." 

"look, we're just trying something, and yeojin agreed to it, i didn't forc--" 

"shut up," jungeun had gotten close and backed haseul up against a tree. one fist had squeezed a patch of haseul's shirt while her elbow kept her in place. jinsol's hands were trying to pry jungeun off of haseul, but it wasn't working. "i said to keep it to yourself and here you are, making everything worse." 

"why are you so against it, anyway?" the girl pinned down spat back. "do you know something we don't?"

jungeun loosened her grip.

haseul continued, "are you afraid? of what? that she's dead?" this time, it was haseul getting in jungeun's face. "all we're trying to do is confirm it. no one found a body yet. no one knows if she is really gone or if she's still somewhere. this'll help either way." 

"i'm not afraid. i'm accepting the facts." 

"prove it," she motioned toward the bag still sitting on the fort, an invitation for jungeun to accompany them trying to contact hyejoo. "and there are no facts, not yet." 

haseul pushed jungeun off of her and walked towards the fort, starting to take piece after piece of the items needed from the bag: markers, some sand, metal objects, candles, the book, and a few other odd pieces, "leave if you want. we're doing it anyway." 

jungeun scanned both chaewon and yeojin; they looked only slightly more interested than afraid and although she didn't trust the way, she trusted the sentiment. she, too, wanted hyejoo back. jungeun decided to stay.

"if anything happens, i'm taking them both and we're leaving."

haseul already had a marker in her hand and was drawing symbols on the wooden planks that formed a floor. she turned to look jungeun in the eyes, "deal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please harass me, [twit](https://twitter.com/_0222fm), [cc](https://curiouscat.me/_0222fm)


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